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Commitments and Contingencies
6 Months Ended
Jun. 30, 2023
Commitments and Contingencies Disclosure [Abstract]  
Commitments and Contingencies

7. Commitments and Contingencies

 

Commitments

 

Aldoxorubicin

 

We have an agreement (the “Vergell Agreement”) with Vergell Medical (formerly with KTB Tumorforschungs GmbH) (“Vergell”) for the exclusive license of patent rights held by Vergell for the worldwide development and commercialization of aldoxorubicin. Under the agreement, we had to make payments to Vergell upon meeting certain clinical and regulatory milestones up to and including the product’s second final marketing approval. However, those payments are no longer required since the intellectual property acquired under the Vergell Agreement has now expired. We accrued $316,000 that we believe is owed prior to the expiry of the intellectual property. This amount was outstanding both for the six-month periods ended June 30, 2023 and June 30, 2022.

 

 

Arimoclomol

 

The agreement relating to our worldwide rights to arimoclomol provides for our payment of up to an aggregate of $3.65 million upon receipt of milestone payments from Orphayzme A/S. On May 31, 2022, Orphazyme announced that it had completed the sale of substantially all of its assets and business activities for cash consideration of $12.8 million and assumption of liabilities estimated to equal approximately $5.2 million to KemPharm (the “KemPharm Transaction”). KemPharm is a specialty biopharmaceutical company focused on the discovery and development of novel treatments for rare central nervous system (“CNS”) diseases. As part of the KemPharm Transaction, all of Orphazyme’s obligations to LadRx under the 2011 Arimoclomol Agreement, including with regard to milestone payments and royalties on sales, were assumed by KemPharm. KemPharm re-branded to Zevra Therapeutics, Inc. in February 2023.

 

As disclosed in Note 3, Assignment Agreement with XOMA, pursuant to the Assignment Agreement, although all the liabilities and obligations related to arimoclomol remain the responsibility of the Company, XOMA will direct an escrow agent appointed by them to pay on behalf of LadRx up to an aggregate of $3.25 million reflected in the preceding paragraph, as well as all future obligations related to Steven A. Kriegsman, pursuant to the Amended and Restated Employment Agreement, as amended by and between the Company and Mr. Kriegsman, dated March 26, 2019.

 

Innovive

 

Under the merger agreement by which we acquired Innovive, we agreed to pay the former Innovive stockholders a total of up to approximately $18.3 million of future earnout merger consideration, subject to our achievement of specified net sales under the Innovive license agreements. As of June 30, 2023, there are no longer any further obligations due under this agreement, since the licensed intellectual property rights have expired.

 

Contingencies

 

We apply the disclosure provisions of ASC 460, Guarantees (“ASC 460”) to its agreements that contain guarantees or indemnities by the Company. We provide (i) indemnifications of varying scope and size to certain investors and other parties for certain losses suffered or incurred by the indemnified party in connection with various types of third-party claims; and (ii) indemnifications of varying scope and size to officers and directors against third party claims arising from the services they provide to the Company.

 

The Company is occasionally involved in legal proceedings and other matters arising from the normal course of business. On November 30, 2022, Jerald Hammann (“Hammann”) filed a complaint (the “Complaint”) against the Company, Mr. Caloz, and Mr. Kriegsman (together, “Defendants”) in the Court of Chancery of the State of Delaware, alleging various violations of a Cooperation Agreement, dated August 21, 2020, by and between the Company and Hammann. The Complaint alleges breaches of a provision limiting the Board’s ability to effect discretionary compensation and a non-disparagement provision. The Complaint further alleges a breach of a purported implied obligation that the Company disclose various internal records to Hammann. Defendants believe the Complaint is wholly without merit and have moved to dismiss the Complaint in its entirety. Hammann has opposed the motion to dismiss and briefing of the motion is ongoing. Defendants intend to litigate vigorously against Hammann’s claims.

 

The Company evaluates developments in legal proceedings and other matters on a quarterly basis. The Company records accruals for loss contingencies to the extent that the Company concludes that it is probable that a liability has been incurred and the amount of the related loss can be reasonably estimated.

 

In May 2023, the World Health Organization determined that COVID-19 no longer fit the definition of a public health emergency and the U.S. government announced its plan to let the declaration of a public health emergency associated with COVID-19 expire on May 11, 2023.

 

COVID-19 is expected to remain a serious endemic threat for an indefinite future period, and may continue to adversely affect the global economy, the companies which we are working to develop and commercialize our products, such as ImmunityBio and KemPharm, and we are unable to predict the full extent of potential delays or impacts on our business, and operations.

 

The extent to which the COVID-19 endemic and its ongoing effects, including but not limited to supply chain issues, global shortages of supplies, material and products, volatile market conditions and rising global inflation may impact our business and prospects will depend on future developments, which remain uncertain and cannot be predicted with confidence.